Sunday, fiery Sunday

Spokane County Fire District 3 crews remain on standby should their resources be needed as other regional firefighting organizations battle a series of wild land fires that burst out Sunday afternoon within minutes of each other.

Regional fire crews were dispatched to a pair of fires near Spokane that both started around 3 p.m. and have now been designated the Spokane Complex. District 3 crews responded to the larger of these two fires that started near South Yale Road northeast of the town of Spangle, and pushed by winds from the south/southwest has burned towards the town of Valleyford located 15 miles south of Spokane.

District 3 Deputy Chief Bill Dennstaedt said at one point the district had 22 firefighting apparatus committed on the blaze, which as of press time had burned through an estimated 3,500 acres of short grass and timber, with much of the timber located in steep draws, according to information from the fire's InciWeb site. It was this topography that gave firefighters a difficult time in initially combating the fire.

"That was our one of our biggest problems, no access to the fire," Dennstaedt said.

Another issue was a lack of aircraft needed to fight the fire. Dennstaedt said when they initially called for air support they were told none was available since existing resources were being used to combat the second blaze that broke out about the same time northeast of the city of Spokane in the Wellesley/Beacon Hill area.

A statewide fire mobilization was called at 5:45 p.m., District 3 office manger Debra Arnold said. That freed up more resources for both fires and air support found its way to the Yale Road Fire.

Dennstaedt said one home was destroyed at the point of the fire's origin, with 4-5 more burned in District 3's portion of the Latah Creek area where the fire is located. Incident officials said a total of 10 homes had been destroyed, with evacuation orders for 1,000 of the Valleyford-area's 2,450 residents in effect Tuesday.

District 3 Fire Chief Bruce Holloway, who is also the Yale Road deputy incident commander, said Tuesday morning that fire crews had made "pretty good progress" Monday evening, helped by cooler temperatures and diminishing winds. Holloway wouldn't give any predictions on what amount of the blaze had been contained, but said fire crews had experienced a lot of success in getting resources around the fire's perimeter.

"We've got (fire) lines on 60 percent, and that's a pretty good sign," Holloway added.

Dry conditions and strong winds moving through the area Sunday were contributors not only in getting the Yale Road and Wellesley/Beacon Hill fires going but also another fire north of Davenport. The Hart Fire took off about the same time as the other two, and as of Tuesday had burned through over 4,200 acres of grass and timber in Lincoln County and Stevens County south of Wellpinit.

Dennstaedt said the district committed most of its resources to the Yale Road fire, emptying the stations in Spangle and at Aspen Meadows as well as others at Williams/Amber and Chapman Lakes and at headquarters in Cheney.

"One truck came in (to Cheney) from Tyler to help cover," Dennstaedt said.

As of Tuesday, all District 3 crews were off the Yale Road fire, but remained on standby to provide assistance. With the state mobilization, fire agencies are on an on-call rotation, and District 3's turn in that rotation is next week.

"We have a crew dedicated (to respond)," Dennstaedt said.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.